As is well known, many of today's laptop, notebook, desktop and other computers, as well as computer peripherals and other electronic products, are designed to receive removable devices such as cards conforming to standards established by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA). These standards define the electrical and physical specifications of the card including the interfaces between the card and the port or slot into which the card is inserted. The specifications include a 16-bit PC Card interface and a 32-bit CardBus interface. The PCMCIA standards also specify three card form factors, called Type I, Type II and Type III. All three card types measure the same length (85.6 mm) and the same width (54.0 mm), and differ only in overall thickness. Thus, the Type I card has a thickness of 3.3 mm; the Type II card, 5.0 mm; and the Type III card, 10.5 mm. PCMCIA cards may be used for various purposes. For example, Type I cards are typically used for memory devices; Type II cards are typically used for I/O devices, as will be described below; and Type III cards are typically used to house rotating mass storage devices (disk drives). Presently, Type II cards are used principally as communication links, for example, for connecting the user of a host system such as a portable computer to an Ethernet LAN, as a data/fax modem for connecting the user to a subscriber telephone line system, or as a combined LAN and modem card. In one popular arrangement, an adapter cable is used to couple the relatively thin Type II card to the much larger, standard RJ-11 or RJ-45 receptacle of a telephone line or Ethernet network. A drawback of this arrangement is that one or more bulky adapter cables must be carried (in addition to the computer) by the computer user in order to connect the computer to a LAN or telephone line system thereby defeating at least to some extent the advantages afforded by portable computers; also, these adapter cables are often lost. Another disadvantage of adapter cables is that the connection between the thin card and the cable is inherently fragile mechanically and subject to losses of electrical contact with a consequent loss of data transfer.
One solution to the problem of incompatibility between the PCMCIA Type II standard communications card and the RJ-type connector is to add to the rear end of the Type II card an enlarged housing enclosing a receptacle sized and configured to receive an RJ-type connector plug. The incorporation of such an RJ receptacle housing allows the 5 mm Type II communications card to interface directly with a LAN or telephone system using an existing LAN or telephone cable with an RJ-11 or RJ-45 modular plug at each end. However, although this approach eliminates the need for a separate adapter cable assembly, the housing on the end of the card for receiving the RJ-type connector projects from the host system enclosure often requiring the removal of the card when transporting a portable computer in an attache case or the like.
Another approach to the elimination of the need for external adapter cables is a communications card that allows an RJ-type modular plug to be inserted directly into an aperture formed in a retractable access portion of a Type II communications card. Such an approach is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,404 issued Feb. 2, 1993. Yet another approach to eliminating the need for adapter cables is disclosed in International Application No. PCT/US94/13106, published May 18, 1995 under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) as Publication No. WO 95/13633 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,332). FIG. 21 of this PCT publication shows a Type III card incorporating in the rear thereof a pair of RJ-xx series receptacles (specifically RJ-11 and RJ-45) for directly connecting the card to a LAN network and/or telephone line.
An overall object of the present invention is to provide an improvement of the device disclosed in the aforementioned PCT publication.